Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers said Saturday that the Golden State Warriors are worked up over nothing because they didn't get the full meaning behind his comments about how luck is required to win the NBA title.
"I'm going to give Klay [Thompson] and his whole team the benefit of the doubt on that," Rivers said. "What I said is true -- not the way it was said to them. I never said the Warriors were lucky. That's unrepresentative of what I said. I said you have to be lucky to win. It's a completely different way."
In a recent interview, Rivers told Grantland's Zach Lowe: "You need luck in the West. Look at Golden State. They didn't have to play us or the Spurs."
When told of those comments, Thompson and teammates Draymond Green and Stephen Curry all took exception.
"That sounds pretty bitter to me," Thompson said last week. "If we got lucky, look at our record against them last year. I'm pretty sure we smacked them."
Rivers told reporters Saturday that he meant no disrespect to the Warriors, but he understands where their angst comes from.
"I actually referenced my team when we won it. ... You have to have luck to win," Rivers said. "Now, clearly, it bothers them for whatever reason. That part I could care less about. But it was worded wrongly to them. If someone had said we were lucky in Boston, I'd have been upset, too. I get that."
Rivers won an NBA title as coach of the Boston Celtics in 2008.